AllFreeNovel
Share Us
20THVICTIM
(with Maxine Paetro)
When simultaneous murders hit LA, Chicago and San Francisco, SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is tasked with uncovering what links these precise and calculated killings.
21STBIRTHDAY
(with Maxine Paetro)
When a young mother and her baby daughter are reported missing, Lindsay takes up the investigation to find them.
22 SECONDS
(with Maxine Paetro)
Lindsay investigates an illegal shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border, risking both her badge and her life.
Read on for an extract fromRUN ROSE RUN
The global smash-hit by James Patterson and Dolly Parton
Out now in paperback, ebook and audiobook
Prologue
The Louis Seize–style mirror in the bedroom of suite 409 at the Aquitaine Hotel reflected for little more than an instant a slim, fine-featured woman: wide blue eyes, clenched fists, dark hair streaming behind her as she ran.
Then AnnieLee Keyes vanished from the glass, as her bare feet took her racing into the suite’s living room. She dodged the edge of the giltwood settee, flinging its throw pillow over her shoulder. A lamp fell with a crash behind her. She leaped over the coffee table, with its neat stack ofLas Vegasmagazines and tray of complimentary Debauve & Gallais truffles, her name written in chocolate ganache flecked with edible gold. She hadn’t even tasted a single one.
Her foot caught the bouquet of Juliet roses and the vase tipped over, scattering pink blooms all over the carpet.
The balcony was up ahead of her, its doors open to the morning sun. In another instant, she’d reached it, and the hot air hit her in the face like a fist. She jumped onto the chaise longue and threw her right leg over the railing, struggling to push herself the rest of the way up.
Then, balanced on the thin rail between the hotel and the sky, she hesitated. Her heart beat so quickly she could hardly breathe. Every nerve ending sparked with adrenaline.
I can’t,she thought.I can’t do it.
But she had to. Her fingers clutched the rail for another split second before she willed them loose. Her lips moved in an instant of desperate prayer. Then she launched herself into the air. The sun flared, but her vision darkened and became a tunnel. She could see only below her — upturned faces, mouths open in screams she couldn’t hear over her own.
Time slowed. She spread out her arms as if she were flying. And weren’t flying and falling the same?
Maybe,she thought,except for the landing.
Each millisecond stretched to an hour, these measures of time all she had left in this world. Life had been so damn hard, and she’d clawed her way up only to fling herself back down. She didn’t want to die, but she was going to.
AnnieLee twisted in the air, trying to protect herself from what was coming. Trying to aim for the one thing that might save her.
ELEVEN MONTHS EARLIER
CHAPTER 1
AnnieLee had been standing on the side of the road for an hour, thumbing a ride, when the rain started falling in earnest.
Wouldn’t you know it?she thought as she tugged a gas station poncho out of her backpack.It just figures.
She pulled the poncho over her jacket and yanked the hood over her damp hair. The wind picked up, and fat raindrops began to beat a rhythm on the cheap plastic. But she kept that hopeful smile plastered on her face, and she tapped her foot on the gravel shoulder as a bit of a new song came into her head.
Is it easy?she sang to herself.
